Free Republic

Complete interview with Jeb! "Controlling our border." "Less about the past." "Less about all these decisive things that tear us all apart.""It will be a better future if our team wins." "I think he (Donald Trump) should be out of politics and let the next generation emerge.""I think Desantis has a chance. Desantis has a big legion of fans."

America doesn't have a jobs problem. It has a pathways-to-jobs problem. Our economy is producing jobs -- there were 7.4 million open jobs as of February in the midst of a pandemic -- but our education system isn't preparing people to fill those jobs. What's worse, our workforce policies do a poor job of retraining people for the workforce of tomorrow. According to a study by PwC, roughly three out of four working Americans are ready to learn new skills to stay employable, but government-sponsored job training programs have a mixed-to-poor track record.

Good Thursday morning from Washington, where the Senate is set to discuss Iran, and President Obama is packing for Kenya with plans to do the same. And as Donald J. Trump prepares to speak at an event near the Mexican border, the cameras will be watching. And so will his rivals. “I wonder what he’s going to say next.” It’s a phrase that is most often used to describe provocative radio hosts like Howard Stern. These days, it is frequently heard with respect to Mr. Trump, the reality television star and Republican presidential hopeful whose caustic comments and surging support...

Jeb Bush confronted one of the Republican Party's touchiest debates head-on Tuesday, telling Puerto Ricans that conservatives should be proud that America is "an immigrant nation" and value the contribution immigrants make to the country. The former Florida governor and 2016 GOP presidential prospect delivered a speech on economic opportunities peppered with Spanish, and his audience responded with hearty applause. He's fluent in the language, and often uses it in Florida, but it's rarely heard in Republican presidential campaign politics. Immigration is a delicate subject for Bush in the primacy race, with several potential rivals favoring a harder line on...

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, co-author and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush argued that it was important to send the majority of the 50,000 unaccompanied minors back home. “Except for those deserving few who may demonstrate true cause for asylum or protection from sex trafficking, these children must be returned to their homes in Central America,” he wrote in the op-ed, which was co-authored by Clint Bolick. Bush argued that the 2008 anti-trafficking law - allowing children to stay in the country - should be changed to help stop the flow of children crossing the border, who then claim...

Breakups are rough — regrets, pain and bitter memories. As Republicans in the House block immigration reform time after time, American Latinos get the message: It's over, don't call me. Have a good life.Incapable of producing even one GOP vote in favor of the Democrats' last-ditch gamble at forcing an open vote of the House, the message to Latinos is crystalline. Whatever goodwill the clutch of pro-immigration reform House Republicans won in the last year since the Senate passed its bipartisan comprehensive immigration reform bill has now evaporated. ADVERTISEMENT What remains are the weekly flip-flops by Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio),...

As it sought to recruit well-heeled investors, an untested and unprofitable Miami company named InnoVida brought aboard a trusted Florida figure in 2007: Jeb Bush, the former governor and the brother of a sitting president. For potential stockholders, the imprimatur of Mr. Bush, who joined InnoVida as a paid consultant and a member of the board of directors, conferred credibility on the young start-up. That credibility did not last long. It turned out that the leaders of InnoVida, a manufacturer of inexpensive building materials, had faked documents, lied about the health of the business and misappropriated $40 million in company...

The GOP will never become unified until is decides what it believes. Bush should run if only to force that debate over what Republicans really stand for. Part of the reason Reagan won in 1980 was the field against him was divided. The establishment favored Ambassador Bush or John Connolly or Bob Dole or Howard Baker but Reagan forced the debate and moved the party to the right, where much of it is today. In 2016 the right of center vote will be divided among Paul, Ted Cruz, and others, just as the conservative vote was divided in 2012, allowing...

Conservative TV host Bill O’Reilly said Thursday he has no problem with former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush’s recent comments that illegal immigrants commit an “act of love.” In fact, O’Reilly said Bush stole it from his playbook. “He took it from me. I’ve been saying that for years,” O’Reilly said on NBC’s “Today” show on Thursday.

Republican members of Congress are criticizing Jeb Bush’s comments on immigration, highlighting the challenge he’d face in winning over the GOP’s conservative base in a 2016 presidential primary. The former Florida governor made headlines this weekend, when he said people coming to the U.S. illegally were doing so out of an “act of Bush’s comments at an event marking the 25th anniversary of his father’s presidency come as he is weighing his own bid for the White House, but they weren’t warmly received, even among Republican members who want to see the system changed. Rep. Raúl Labrador (R-Idaho), a conservative...

Former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour defended Jeb Bush’s recent comments that some illegal immigration is an “act of love,” saying it’s very similar to what former President Ronald Reagan thought. “What people want you to do: Tell the truth,” Barbour said Tuesday at the LBJ Presidential Library’s Civil Rights Summit. “And if Jeb feels that way about it — it sort of reminds me of my boss, Ronald Reagan.” Barbour, who was an aide in Reagan’s administration described what the president used to call the “gates test” during a panel Tuesday with Democratic San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro. “Ronald Reagan...

In an exclusive sit-down interview with The Brody File, Jeb Bush began to sketch out his case for President of the United States if he decides to run next year. “It will be based on my record. And that record was one of solving problems from completely from a conservative perspective. I cut taxes every year, I shrunk the size of government,” Jeb Bush tells The Brody File. And as for his critics who say he’s too mainstream establishment he offers this: “I will be able to, I think, manage my way through all the chirpers out there.” We sat...